What Are Three Cooking Skills Everyone Should Know?
Even if you consider yourself a good cook, turn on nearly any TV food show these days and chances are someone will be showing you something new, turning you on to a different cooking technique, or flatly declaring you "don't belong in the kitchen" unless you know how to perform a certain skill.
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With all the chatter out there, I asked Valley chefs and restaurateurs to cut to the chase: Three cooking skills everyone should know. Period.
Here's what they said:
Chef Chris McKinley,
Atlas Bistro
1.) Baking, because it comes in handy all the time -- from desserts and breads to side dishes.
2.) Knife skills allow people to have more comfort in the kitchen.
3.) Cooking proteins is a combination of searing, indirect cooking, and resting the meat to get the proper temperature.
Shin Toyoda
Sushi Master at Sushi Roku
1.) How to cook the perfect egg (however you would want).
2.) How to cook on a grill.
3.) How to pan-fry (it basically boils down to managing the proper amount of heat).
Aaron May
Chef and Restaurateur
1.) Knife skills are paramount, but [so are] basic stock- and sauce-making (2.) and at least a primitive understanding of butchery (3.) are also important. I guess those all go hand-in-hand, in terms of the need to know one to advance to the other.
Farah Khalid
Chef and Owner, Curry Corner
1.) Being able to cook meats and fish properly.
2.) Being able to dice an onion.
3.) Boiling rice (this may sound like a joke, but a lot of people can get this wrong!).
Silvana Salcido Esparza
Chef and Owner, Barrio Cafe and Barrio Queen
Everyone should know how to wash dishes, clean a kitchen, and defrost properly. Then, you can start cooking.
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